


Together

by Ellohcee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Friendship, LadyNoir - Freeform, Origins, Strength
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 16:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13368618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellohcee/pseuds/Ellohcee
Summary: There was that moment in the beginning where she wanted to give up, to put away those earrings and pretend it never happened. But she steps up, and her new partners helps her understand what it means to be strong.





	Together

**Author's Note:**

> Writing prompt #24 - "Strength"
> 
> This work can also be found on my tumblr [Here](https://ellohcee.tumblr.com/post/167815735068/together)

She never knew what strength really was.

She remembers that day far too well. She was scared, feeling so small and so sure that she could not do this. _You have the wrong person,_ she thought, _there’s no way, I can’t be a hero._ The weight of it crushing down on her shoulders like a load of bricks, heavy responsibility in those earrings. That morning she could barely manage breakfast and made a total mess, who thought it was a good idea to give her these magic earrings with a millennia year old being inside?

But for him it’s different, right away it’s like a breath of fresh air when he transforms for the first time because it’s so much more than being a hero. Suddenly it’s freedom from his cage, a key to slip through his father’s hold for just a little while in between responsibilities, and it’s like nothing he can describe. When he’s jumping rooftops with ease it’s like flying and falling and exhilaration because he doesn’t have a bodyguard tailing him and no one reprimanding him for being boisterous or happy or excited. He feels like his heart might burst right through his chest because the world is so much bigger and _available_ to him now.

One part of him may still be paraded around like a show cat, primped and primed and never toeing out of line. But the other part of him aching to burst free is allowed to sail the Paris skies and it’s so liberating and heart wrenching in the best possible way.

She, on the other hand, wants to hide them away forever, forget this happened and continue being a normal student like everyone else. She can’t be a hero. But _trust in yourself_ her Kwami says, and she just can’t sit by and watch the destruction with guilt roiling in her stomach. She can’t stand seeing people get hurt and terrorized, and it aches in her bones to know she could do something about it. So she says the words and takes her first leap out into the world as Ladybug. And that leap turns into a spectacular fall.

But then he’s there, all smiles and a thousand stars in his eyes beaming down on her like a godsend. He’s a dork, and makes jokes like no tomorrow, but it helps her calm down and focus on something, because people are in trouble and she has to bite the bullet and step up. She suddenly falls into herself like waking up from a dream, finding a rhythm and flow and figuring out the hero business. And when Hawk Moth makes himself known, she feels the strength of the sun light up in her soul because someone needs to do something, _she_ needs to do something.

Because she _can_ be strong, especially with him there next to her. She knows deep down that they can do this as long as they have each other, they’re partners and they can tackle anything. New as they both may be, the suit feels like a second skin after such a short time, it’s like they’re born for it.

She almost backs down again after seeing all the trouble that she could have prevented, had she purified the Akuma, but again, he’s _there_. He’s so positive and genuinely encouraging that it bolsters her, let’s her fall back into that Ladybug confidence that has started to grow. She can do this, because he’s there with her and she suddenly feels like anything is possible.

And he stands there in awe watching, because he’s never been so amazed by another person before that it lights a fire in his soul like a blaze. He observes her with the crowd as she sweeps up thousands of those dark butterflies in her yo-yo, making a promise to Hawk Moth that he will be defeated, before releasing a cloud of purified Akumas that scatter across the Paris sky like shards of pure light. He trusts her during the split second plan of attack, and he’s so glad he does because she somehow makes the impossible become reality. And throughout it all she just _glows_ like the sun and he can’t help but look up to her.

From that day their lives are twined together, forming a bond so strong they trust each other with everything. They are partners, friends, and together they have the courage and ability to take on anything. They feed off of each other’s confidence and encouragement, looping it back into the feed so that it grows stronger with each fight they face together. If he ever believed in soulmates before he’s sure of it now, because he can’t imagine he could immediately work so well and in tune with anyone else right off the bat. Together they are strong, they trust and love and grow.

She had always thought strength was strength of the body.

But now they both see, strength is what you have together when you might be scared, but you push on anyway. It’s putting others before themselves, stepping up to protect the people of Paris and each other. It’s finding they would do anything for those people, even with missteps along the way, but they keep growing together. Side by side the heroes stand up for what’s right, stand up to be the ray of hope Paris needs with Hawk Moth terrorizing their daily lives.

They are Ladybug and Chat Noir, and together, they are _strength._


End file.
